The Dark Brotherhood's Mercy (Ra'wati's Tale 2)
by HarmonyM
Summary: Ra'wati was sure the new torture chamber she had funded for the Dawnstar Sanctuary was meant to be decorative, not functional. The Night Mother has other ideas. To make things right, Ra'wati undertakes a quest that will redefine what the Dark Brotherhood stands for. Rated T for mild adult themes and violence. Note: This story is on hiatus while I write the prequel.


Prologue: Sanctuary Repairs

It should have been difficult for a Khajiit to become a master thief and assassin in Skyrim. Usually Khajiit were not even allowed in cities out of fear that we were thieves and smugglers. Yet nobody ever remarked on my presence, let alone noticed how often I disappeared into the graveyard in Riften that housed the secret entrance to the Thieves Guild.

People in Skyrim were just so unobservant. That was fine by me, though.

A hush fell over the denizens of the Ragged Flagon as I entered through the Cistern door. All eyes fixed on me, staring as if they thought I was a ghost.

Silly humans. Ghosts are blue, I thought.

"Ra'wati?!" Delvin Mallory gasped, his voice a mixture of shock and delight. "I thought you were dead!"

"Dead?" I laughed. "Why would you think that? Has anyone ever killed me before?"

"You haven't been here in days," Vex said. Her tone was disapproving, as usual, but I could tell she was glad to see me. "The day after you were last here, we heard the Dark Brotherhood had been wiped out."

"Oh," I said, shuffling my feet uncomfortably.

"Is it true?" Delvin asked.

"Partially," I said sadly. "The old Sanctuary was destroyed. Nazir, Babette and Astrid are the only others who escaped." And Cicero, but you don't know him.

"You should have come back sooner," Vex snapped. "We have way too much work for you to do. There's no time for slacking off."

"Don't worry, I got that circlet you asked for," I assured her. "I'll be right with you. I just have a business matter to discuss with Delvin first."

"Fine. Just hurry up. I've got more work than you can handle."

Then why don't you do some of it yourself? I thought. I turned to Delvin. "This is Dark Brotherhood business. Can we go someplace quieter?"

"Sure, love," he said. "Follow me."

He led me away from the rest of the Thieves Guild, off into an alcove across the room. We settled down on opposite sides of a small table.

"So, what's with the secrecy?" he asked. "You know I can't help you kill anyone. That's not our way."

"It's nothing like that," I assured him quickly. "Astrid just wanted me to be careful with the location of our new headquarters. She knows we can trust you."

"So the Brotherhood ain't dead?"

"No, we're getting back on our feet." I reached into my pack, pulled out a sealed envelope, and handed it to Delvin. "We've moved into the old Dawnstar Sanctuary. It's a bit run-down. Astrid wanted you to help us redecorate and repair the place."

He opened Astrid's letter and scanned the contents. "This shouldn't be a problem, provided you've got the gold."

"I was paid very well for my last job," I assured him. I thought back to my encounter with the Emperor. Everyone at the Sanctuary was overjoyed at my success, but I still didn't know how I felt about it.

Delvin spoke half to me, half to himself, as he read Astrid's request. "Secret entrance… yeah, that'll be useful… New banners… gotta make the place flashy, eh? … Garden for growing poisonous plants… Yeah, I can see how you could use that… Bedroom decorations… Even an assassin likes to feel at home, right?…"

As he talked, I took out the coin purse, or coin bag, I had received for executing the Emperor. 20,000 gold coins. While I appreciated being able to buy food and shelter whenever I needed it, it would be nice not to have to lug this burden around anymore.

I almost dropped the bag on the floor when Delvin turned to the last page of the letter.

"Ah, a torture chamber," Delvin said, finally looking back up at me. "Now that's the Dark Brotherhood I know and love."

"Torture chamber?" I asked blankly, too startled to say anything else.

"Something wrong, love?" he asked.

"I… I don't see why Astrid asked for that," I said, still trying to collect my thoughts.

"Well, that's easy. Either for business or pleasure, right?"

I gritted my teeth. "Or decoration."

He gave me a look that said I was naïve.

"What do we need with a torture chamber? We get all the money we need from our contracts. We're very good at tracking people down. There's no point in having one, other than decoration."

Delvin shrugged. "Doesn't really matter, I suppose. It'll be 19,000 septims for all the repairs."

I removed 1,000 septims from the bag and pushed it over to him. "It has to be decorative," I muttered to myself.

"I'll have everything done before you get back to the Sanctuary," Delvin assured me. "Now, how's about you do some work for the Guild? You've been making us feel neglected."

"Of course," I said, getting to my feet. "Vex seems more surly than usual."

There was no point getting concerned about Astrid asking for a torture chamber, right? The Dark Brotherhood had no use for such things. Surely it was just to give the new Sanctuary a sinister atmosphere to impress our new recruits.

I put the matter out of my head and went to talk to Vex. It would be nice to do a few jobs that didn't require killing for a change.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **I started this story to try to make myelf feel better about the existence of the Dawnstar Sanctuary torture chamber, and how there's no way to help the four torture victims. (There's a long story behind it that belongs elsewhere.) Ra'Wati was going to use the story of her rescue of Etienne Rarnis to explain to one of the new Dark Brotherhood members how she could justify being a ruthless assassin and still be opposed to torture. But as I planned the chapter and thought about her backstory, I realized she was a very shallowly-developed character by my standards. I came up with a story for how she got captured by the Imperials for the first scene in the game, and before I knew it, I realized I wanted to write her story from that point. Many plot points for this story might not work anymore, so I'm putting this on hiatus to write its prequel, War Is Gray.


End file.
